Alexander Luthor (New Earth)
Impeachment Lex Luthor finally accepted Superman's secret identity as Clark Kent, which he had been aware of from almost from their earliest meetings but refused to accept for his own personal belief that people of power always crave and reflect themselves as people of power, never as one of the masses, thus to Luthor a being like Superman would never try to pass himself off as Clark Kent who was no one of extreme note. In a story published in 2002, when a lowly scientist was able to get a meeting with Lex and reveal top secret government documents showing the rocket containing baby Superman crashing near the farm of Martha and Jonathan Kent. Killing the scientist, Lex surprisingly decided to keep the knowledge a secret even as Clark Kent took the fall for Lois publishing proof that Lex Luthor knew of the alien invasion of "Our Worlds At War" but had opted not to make any defensive plans to save the people of Kansas from attack. Clark was fired from the Daily Planet as a result of the flap, when another Superman villain, Manchester Black, used his telepathic powers on an unknowing Lex to allow him to pass an assortment of lie detector tests (including Wonder Woman's lasso of truth) to prove that Lois and Clark's story was a lie. When Manchester Black tried to kill Superman and his friends and family members, Luthor surprisingly came to Superman's aid when Black tried to kill Lois, admitting that he had kept Superman's identity as Clark Kent secret both out of a sense of nostalgia for their past confrontations in recognition of an approaching change and the knowledge that revealing the truth about Superman would endanger Lois, almost the only woman he cared for. In the end, Manchester Black was defeated and as revenge for Lex helping Superman defeat him, Black erased all knowledge that Clark Kent was Superman from Lex's mind before taking his own life. 320px|thumb Later, Luthor once again overplayed his hand, as his success at framing Bruce Wayne for the murder of Vesper Fairchild caused him to get arrogant. In an attempt to blame Superman for a kryptonite meteor approaching the Earth, he instead raised questions about himself as Superman and Batman uncovered a plot of Luthor's to further torment Batman that involved tricking Batman into thinking that the Superman villain Metallo was the man who killed Batman's parents. In desperation, he used a variant combination of the "super-steroid" Venom (a steroid mainly used by Batman villain Bane), liquid synthetic green kryptonite, and an Apokaliptian battlesuit to battle Superman directly. Unfortunately, the madness that is a side effect of Venom took hold, and he revealed his true colors during the battle. The final straw was the revelation that Talia Head, the acting CEO of LexCorp, had sold all the company assets to the Wayne Foundation. He has since gone underground, leaving the presidency to his vice president, Pete Ross. Infinite Crisis Lex Luthor had retreated into recluse before the events of Infinite Crisis, as he prepared to try and activate mind control programming inside the brain of then current Superboy (Conner Kent) (created using Lex's DNA) to help him gain revenge against Earth's mightiest heroes. He also was revealed to have orchestrated, with help from the newly created robotic Brainiac, the murder of Teen Titan member Donna Troy, who is destined to play a critical role in "Infinite Crisis". He's also been carefully surveilling the new Supergirl, and has plans for her involving his newly-acquired black kryptonite. With Lex Luthor acting in secret, Alexander Luthor, Jr. returned to New Earth and began his own plot that was interfering with LEX's own plans. Assuming the Post-Crisis Lex Luthor's identity, Alexander began an elaborate scheme with help from the erased Earth-Prime Superboy-Prime and Kal-L, the Earth-Two Superman that he wanted to restore the original Multiverse, but his intentions was not just to recreate them as they once were but only as the basis of his ultimate goal, as he told Superboy-Prime Kal-L would help them "whether he likes it or not". As one of the premier reformers of the "Secret Society of Super-Villains", Alexander Luthor, Jr. recruited Black Adam, Doctor Psycho, Calculator, Talia Head, and Deathstroke as his inner circle. The new Society exploited the villain community's fear of mind-wipes at the hands of the Justice League to recruit a literal army of villains under the guise of creating their own "mind-wipe" device designed to erase the memories of Earth's heroes as payback. However, this was just another cover for his even darker scheme involving the kidnapping heroes, each representing alternate earths, to power the giant tower being used to perform a major act of alteration to reality. Alexander Luthor, Jr. formerly of Earth-Three had decided to restore the previously existing multiverse as a base selection to create a so-called "perfect" universe from as the current reality seeemed to be failing and in Alexander Luthor, Jr.'s own words "was a world of villains". Abandoned by his allies, Alex Jr. was depowered, in part due to the villains that Lex assembled under his alias of Mockingbird. Lex tracked down the supposedly depowered Alex Jr. and allowed the Joker in a fit of revenge kill Alex. Lex used Alex's corpse as evidence that he had an impostor who responsible for all his recent illegal activities. He was cleared of many of the criminal actions he was accused of. Post Infinite Crisis Origin The events of Infinite Crisis and Alex Luthor's attempts to rewrite history actually led to alterations in Lex Luthor's personal history. In the newly created time line, the current Luthor family has a long history with the city of Metropolis. Some of Lex's ancestors were among the pilgrims who founded the city, others were amongst the Native Americans who were there to meet them. Over the centuries, the Luthor family became wealthy and influential, Lex's great-grandfather Wallace Luthor being a millionaire industrialist at the beginning of the 20th Century. He lost his fortune though, in the stock market crash of 1929, and went to his grave a pauper after having to declare bankruptcy. The family fortune would not be rebuilt until the arrival of Lex Luthor, the son of abusive alcoholic Lionel Luthor and his wife Letitia. Lex cared little for his parents, though he did love his sister Lena. In his teens, he lived for a time in Smallville with his aunt, also called Lena, and there met the young Clark Kent and his friends Lana Lang and Pete Ross. The stand-offish and superior Lex was friendly with Clark for a time, but eventually left Smallville under a cloud of suspicion after his father died in mysterious circumstances (engineered by Lex, though this could not be proved). Leaving his sister in Smallville, Lex went to metropolis and, as before, founded LexCorp. Superman Arrives (Again) In this new timeline, Luthor's first meeting with Superman was also somewhat different. As part of his philanthropic image Luthor, by this time the most powerful man in Metropolis, had taken to picking a random person from the supplicants who gathered at LexCorp's gates every morning in order to bestow the chance of a new life upon them. His choice on this occasion, though, was Rudy Jones who, after eating a donut contaminated by an unknown chemical compound, was transformed into the Parasite. Superman stopped the Parasite's rampage, overshadowing Luthor and infuriating him. Lex contacted General Sam Lane, who was convinced Superman was a threat, and informed him that Superman was an alien. He transformed one of Lane's men, Sgt John Corben, into Metallo and sent him out after Superman, but Metallo was defeated and Superman, previously an object of suspicion in the city, feted as a hero. When Luthor came to bestow his gifts on a grateful populace the next day, no-one was there; Lex was no longer the most powerful man in Metropolis. This cemented Lex's lifelong hatred of the Man of Steel. Eventually, as before, Luthor went from hero of the people to public enemy number one. 52 Through his still impressive financial resources, Lex has engaged in a public promotion campaign to regain his popularity through the Everyman Project, a scientific process that could grant superhuman powers to non-metahumans. The first several subjects of his process became the latest incarnation of Infinity, Inc. Luthor's own body, however, was not compatible with the process, a fact which pained him greatly. When newly minted meta-humans began falling out of the sky, the media-named Fall Of The Supermen, Luthor’s building was attacked by John Henry Steel and his niece. Steel confronted Luthor and was beaten, Lex having found a way to gain meta-powers of his own. Lex was still defeated however and arrested. It was later found that the Lex that was imprisoned was, in fact, Everyman – a shape changer from the Everyman project. Lex was found in a hidden room still inside the Lexcorp building. Later, Luthor had managed to get his hands on a Kryptonian crystal, which he used to attack Metropolis when Superman ‘came back’. As giant crystal formations began to appear through the ground, Superman tried to save as many people as he could whilst trying to find the source of the attack. When he found Lex, the former industrialist was high above the city in a ship made of the crystal where he was controlling it all from. Lex turned all of the crystal into kryptonite, forcing Superman to stay away from Metropolis and the ship, but he didn’t count on Superman charging him. Superman knew Luthor would have some form of personal shielding and was right as they both fell down towards the ground. Luthor had time to say one thing: “I hate you. So much.” Superman was again powerless and Luthor’s shield was weak when they struck the ground. They both rose, weak and injured, and Lex began to fist-fight with Superman. With each traded punch, Lex spoke of how if Superman hadn’t arrived on Earth and come to Metropolis, he would have made so many scientific breakthroughs, instead of trying to come up with ways to destroy Superman. It was all Superman’s fault that Lex wasn’t the top of the food chain anymore. Superman countered with the fact he had been away for an entire year, yet Luthor had acomplished none of these things he claims he could have done had there been no Superman. The fight ended with Superman victorious. Luthor was subsequently abducted from prison and drafted in Project 7734 under General Lane. He has hopes of using the project to fulfill his goals against Superman, but Lane has been keeping him on topic. Time will tell if Luthor manages to break free... ''One Year Later'' and Countdown One year after the events of Infinite Crisis, Luthor has been cleared of over 120 criminal counts ranging from malfeasance to first-degree murder relating to the New Year's Eve massacre from 52. However, his role in the massacre has permanently ruined his public image and thanks to the machinations of Doctor Sivana, he has lost most of his wealth and all of his control over his newly reformed LexCorp, which is now being run by Lana Lang. He blames Clark Kent for writing several articles unraveling his schemes and pledges vengeance on Metropolis after an angry mob jeers him on the courthouse steps. After amassing large quantities of Kryptonite, including kidnapping the supervillains Metallo and the Kryptonite Man, Lex uses it to power a Kryptonian battleship controlled through a "sunstone" crystal.Action Comics #839 Superman manages to destroy the Kryptonite-powered ship and recover the crystal, but Lex manages to escape custody yet again.Action Comics #840 Lex later sends Bizarro after the newly arrived "Superboy" only for the creature to be defeated by Superman. Undaunted, Luthor gathers together a new Revenge Squad to fight against invading Kryptonians led by General Zod. In JLA, Luthor (alongside Joker and Cheetah III) gathers together a new "Injustice League" and, outfitted in a new version of his warsuit (although still green and purple, it no longer has clear design derivations from the pre-Crisis warsuit as the McGuinness design did), sets out to destroy the Justice League with them. On a related note during this section, he was responsible for creating the third Shaggy Man and the third Blockbuster. Luthor plays a large role in the Countdown to Final Crisis tie-in event, Salvation Run. Having been sent to the prison planet after his Injustice League was defeated, Lex quickly assumes control of the amassed villains, receiving competition only from Joker and Gorilla Grodd, who convince half of the villains to join them. He does fight the Joker until the battle was interrupted by an attack by Desaad's Parademons. After the attack, Luthor manages to get the villains off the planet with a makeshift teleporter, secretly powered by Neutron, Heatmonger, Plasmus, Warp and Thunder and Lightning. When called a "monster" by Thunder, Luthor claims it is the ones who sent them there who are the real monsters, and that he is the hero. He later sets the teleporter to self-destruct after he uses it, killing the attacking Parademons, and his living batteries. Final Crisis In Justice League of America (vol. 2) #21, Luthor can be seen associating with Libra's Secret Society of Super Villains and placed in its Inner Circle. Lex Luthor wanted Libra to prove himself, so Libra sends Clayface to blow up the Daily Planet building. As Lex Luthor attempts to ambush Libra after learning that he is a prophet of Darkseid, Lex Luthor soon ends up surrounded by Justifiers. Libra tells Lex Luthor to make a final choice... swear an oath to Darkseid or become a mindless slave. In Final Crisis #5, Lex Luthor is seen when Libra blames Calculator for cracking the computer codes that will help the resistance. Lex Luthor is silent on the matter, but has been picked to lead the rearguard action against the heroes at Blüdhaven. He assumes it's an honor, but he doesn't look very pleased. During Final Crisis #6, Libra figures out Luthor had been the mole in the Society of Supervillains. Luthor, in league with Doctor Sivana, seemingly destroys Libra and overturns the Anti-Life Equation being broadcast into the Justifiers' helmets. New Krypton Luthor ended up imprisoned for his crimes, but rather that going to jail General Sam Lane had him serve out his sentence working for the secretive Project 7734. While still forced to wear chains, Luthor was assigned the job of accessing the knowledge stored within the captured BrainiacAction Comics #871 (January 2009) who had recently been defeated by Superman (as seen during the Brainiac storyline). Luthor successfully accessed Brainiac’s brain and after Metallo and Reactron were taken to Kandor as prisoners of the Kryptonians who had now settled on Earth he used Brainiac to reactivate the Coluan’s ship that was also being held in Kandor. Brainiac’s robots attacked the Kryptonians, providing a distraction as Metallo and Reactron used their Kryptonite hearts to kill their captors and murder Zor-ElAction Comics #872 (February 2009). After his success with Brainiac, Luthor was given the seemingly dead body of Doomsday, who had been defeated by the Kryptonians, to study as it had “potential”''Action Comics'' #873 (March 2009). Luthor later manages to use Brainiac's connection to his ship to kill the soldiers assigned to watch him. Brainiac manages to free himself from Luthor's control, forcing him onboard the ship, and the two make their escape.Adventure Comics #0 The two are later shown to have entered into an alliance, with Brainiac promising Luthor the Earth when he is done with it. While reading newspapers to catch up on what happened during his imprisonment, Luthor learns of the resurrection of Superboy.Adventure Comics #2 Blackest Night During the Blackest Night event, when words are out that apparently everyone around the world are rising as undead Black Lanterns, Luthor isolates himself in his safehouse in fear of all the people he had murdered over the years would also reanimate and seeking revenge on him.Blackest Night #4 (November 2009) In Blackest Night #6, it is seen that Luthor is being attacked in his safehouse by Black Lanterns including his father, when an Orange Ring arrives and attaches itself to Luthor, inducting him into the Orange Lantern Corps as a deputy member, only for him to attack Scarecrow and Mera to claim their yellow and red rings before his own was taken from him by Larfleeze, the only true member of the Orange Lantern Corps (Sinestro noting that it was the first time Larfleeze had ever given anyone anything). | Powers = Lex Luthor briefly acquired superhuman capabilities as a result of his company-sponsored Everyman Project. 52 Week Thirty-Nine | Abilities = Gifted Businessman: Lex Luthor is one of the most shrewd businessmen in the world, a trait that has earned him an immense fortune second only to entrepreneurs like Bruce Wayne and Steve Dayton. Unlike Wayne however, Luthor is not above using cuthroat tactics, unethical practices and illegal operations to maintain the success of his business empire. At the height of Lexcorp's power, Lex Luthor virtually owned every business enterprise in the city of Metropolis. Seasoned Politician: Lex Luthor's corporate skills applied just as sharply in the political arena as they did in the boardroom. As President of the United States, he groomed the best candidates to serve as his cabinet members and knew the intricacies of bureaucratic politicking as well as any other former Chief Executive. Although Luthor's tenure as president ended in scandal, he successfully guided the nation during the massive alien invasion that came to be known as "Our Worlds At War". Genius-level Intellect: Enhanced physical and cognitive abilities due to his cloned body's specific genetic design construction. Although Luthor possesses a genius level intellect, his scientific prowess is not as refined as his Earth-One, Earth-Two and Earth-Three counterparts who were able to create artificial lifeforms from scratch, interdimensional travel and functional time travel. Trained Combatant: Lex Luthor is also trained in hand-to-hand combat, though his personal Amazon fighting instructors consider him a a sub-par combatant with poor form. He has single-handedly fought with Nightwing and Batman. In his fight with Nightwing however, Nightwing had already been knocked off-balance by a gas that rendered him nearly unconscious, while in his fight with Batman he had injected himself with kryptonite-enhanced Venom. | Strength = In his original body, Lex Luthor possessed the strength level of a middle-aged man who engaged in minimal regular exercise. In his cloned body, Lex possesses the strength level slightly above that of a normal human male who engages in intensive regular exercise. He routinely works out with state of the art bodybuilding equipment, and has hired Amazon warriors to put him through a thorough exercise regiment. | Weaknesses = His own great arrogance, megalomania, jealousy, and ruthlessness. At one point, he even had daddy issues. Luthor's main weakness in many stories is his inability to understand the heroes he fights, such as commenting during his leadership of the modern Injustice Gang that Connor Hawke betraying the gang to side with the League even after everything the Gang had to offer him made no sense to him, as well as his inability to learn Superman's true identity at first simply because he couldn't imagine someone with Superman's power wanting to live a life like Clark's. | Equipment = Luthor has created and used many different advanced technological devices including his battle suit,and he possessed a Kryptonian artifact known as a Sunstone. With it, he was able to locate and take command of an ancient Kryptonian warship once used by Admiral Zod. | Transportation = | Weapons = Orange Lantern Ring and Various devices such as his battlesuit. | Notes = * The character of Luthor was originally created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. * In addition to the details of Luthor's early life and upbringing having been changed somewhat by the events of Infinite Crisis, his hair color has also changed; in the former timeline, he had red hair, but the current Luthor's hair was brown. Since his hair eventually receded leaving him bald in both versions of his history though, this is largely unimportant. | Trivia = * Lex's birthday is September 28th. | Recommended = * The Man of Steel * Superman: Birthright * Superman: Secret Origin * Villains United * Lex Luthor: Man of Steel * Fall of Metropolis * Our Worlds at War * Action Comics * Adventures of Superman * Superman (Volume 1) * Superman (Volume 2) | DC = lex_luthor | Wikipedia = Lex Luthor | Links = * }} Category:Americans Category:Business Management Category:Copper-Age Characters Category:Divorced Characters Category:Widowed Characters Category:Politicians Category:Businesspeople Category:American Presidents Category:Secret Six members Category:Injustice Gang II members Category:Injustice League I members Category:Injustice League III members Category:Intergang members Category:Secret Society of Super-Villains members Category:Salvation Run deportees Category:Enhanced Intellect Category:Independently Wealthy Category:Orange Lantern Corps members Category:Leadership Category:1940 Character Debuts Category:Superman Revenge Squad members